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Road Trip

A Top-Ten List of the most-famous school Field Trips in my teaching career.

By John Oliver SmithPublished 2 years ago 24 min read
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Camp-outs & Ski trips with warm woolen mittens - these are a few of my favorite things!

Any teacher who has ever worked in a classroom or a lab or a gym full of unseasoned learners and not-yet-fully-developed human beings for 32 years is bound to have a few stories. These stories may come from the classroom itself and involve one or two students in particular, or they may come from the “out of school” experience involved when whole classes of students venture head-long, into the big wide world. I certainly have had both types of experiences (and everything in between), thus I also have the stories that go with those sorts of adventures. In the account that follows, I would like to relate some muses of my ten favorite entries in the School Field Trip ledger. Of course, I was involved with dozens, if not hundreds, more than what I have mentioned here, but many of them were matter-of-fact, and simply followed the book – going much as planned, innocuous in their process and procedure and predictable in their outcome. A few, on the other hand, stick out vividly in my mind because of one or more incidents involving one or more students, or because of the destination, or because of the mode of travel to and from the destination, or because of the complexity, magnitude and scope of organizing and proceeding with the trip itself. During my teaching tenure, I was primarily a teacher of physical education for much of the time, and thus, was involved with coaching a variety of sports for a variety of male and female age-groups. I estimate that I likely took more than 250 sports-related road trips during that time. While teaching in Canada (Saskatchewan and British Columbia), I was involved with a minimum of one class-related trip (Museum visits, drama performances, etc.) per semester and at least one whole-school-related outing (Skiing trips, camping, hiking, etc.) per school year. The inclusion of these activities increases my field-trip tally by another 100. Add to that, the 30 plus shopping trips I took with my Foods & Nutrition students while teaching in China, and my career total stands at nearly 400 field trips taken during my teaching career. That’s an average of over 10 times per year that I was given the opportunity to be involved with the fabrication of some very interesting tales of student adventure (or possibly misadventure). Anyway, you get my point. In over 350 outings, it is very likely that a few of them could rightfully be categorized as at least slightly interesting. So, without further ado, here is my list of favorite field trips taken as a teacher of extraordinary students, and a facilitator of discovery.

At the Provincial Final Tournament

10. Senior Boys’ Volleyball Tournament in Creelman while teaching in Stoughton – we won the tournament, which is one of the reasons why this trip stands out, I guess. Otherwise, it was just one of dozens of sports trips I took with students over my many years of teaching. Another such tournament trip, however, to Lampman this time, was taken with the same group of boys early on a Saturday morning, after most of them had partied hard all Friday night. Our team’s ‘setter’ was particularly hungover and had to throw-up out of our moving car as we travelled to the tournament. The wind caught his glasses when he stuck his head out of the window and blew them into the ditch. We stopped and looked for them but never did find them. Because this player could not see very well without his glasses, he not only did a poor job of setting during the day, but was also hit in the face twice by spiked balls from opposing teams. He came home with a black eye and a cut lip and no glasses. I let HIM do the “schplainin’” to his parents about what happened.

Some students from Stoughton, SK at the K of C Indoor Games Track Meet in Saskatoon

9. Track & Field at Saskatoon K of C Indoor games while teaching in Ceylon, SK – I attended these games with two male and two female athletes. Although they did not win any medals, they competed well. On the drive back from Saskatoon to Ceylon, the boys became a little tough to take, with their ceaseless antics in the back of the car. Neither a move to the front seat, nor other seating rearrangements seemed to do the trick, so finally, they were removed from the car and made to walk one mile on that winter night. I followed behind them at a speed of 4.7 miles per hour for the entire mile. It worked, because on returning to the car, they both fell asleep and remained so for the rest of the ride home.

Senior Girls Volleyball - Ceylon, SK

8. Senior Girls Volleyball Tournament in Pangman, SK while teaching in Ceylon, SK – because this tournament was so close to home, all of the players were allowed to drive their own vehicles to and from the Friday evening / Saturday event. As I drove into Pangman on the Saturday morning, I went past a yard where a truck had apparently driven through the hedge around the yard and then ended up on the front step of the house enclosed by the hedge. Sure enough, it had been driven by one of my girls, the night before and had to remain there until the police were able to check it out the next day. Needless to say, a couple of the girls seemed a little sheepish during play on that morning. Also, the tournament took place on the day following the hand-out of report cards at our school (this might have been the reason why some of the girls were celebrating on the Friday night). Regardless, I had played a trick on the captain of our team. With her mother’s approval (Mom was also a teacher at the school), I had given her a bogus report card, complete with several failing grades – not fascinating in itself, but this kid was a straight-A student, so the affect of the false report had startling consequences on her greetings for me when we all arrived in the gym on the Saturday morning of the tournament. It was the first and only time in all my years of teaching that I was slapped in the face by a student. I guess I deserved it, but it was worth it in the end.

Junior Girls Basketball (Year 1) - Macklin, SK (0-22 record)

7. Junior Girls Basketball Tournament in Onion Lake, SK while teaching in Macklin, SK – this was another tournament that our girls happened to win. We travelled by bus early Saturday morning to a First Nations Reserve School about three miles out of Onion Lake. The school was built that far from the town so that the students wouldn’t be motivated to run away at noon hour. This tournament was a turning point for this particular team. We had started a couple of years earlier, never having played before. In the inaugural season, we never won a game. We were losing contests by scores of 60 – 0 or worse. We were actually sinking a few field goals but they were on our own basket or on shots made after the whistle. We had come a long way to the performance at that tournament. We even had one player who had never scored a single basket in all of the games we had played in those two years. It is possible that she had never even attempted a shot. On that day though, she finally sank a ‘buzzer beater’ at the very end of our first game that day. Our bench went wild. I took it as an omen. Anyway, our team was not a big team, nor were we overly tough (I thought). After our first-game victory against a Lloydminster team, my girls were astounded to see that the host team had players who were young mothers. One was actually breast-feeding her small baby on the bench during a time-out in their game. And, being mothers (teenage or not), they were one tough and physical bunch. I imagine they had seen hardships in their lives that our girls could not even imagine. They played basketball with the same raw determination they had to muster in their daily lives. Our team played that host team in the final. To say it was a hard-fought battle which resembled a rugby match, would be an understatement. But basketball prevailed, and we came out on top. The girls posed for a few photos around the trophy after the award ceremony and then hopped on the bus and slept all the way home.

Junior Girls Basketball (Year 3) - Macklin, SK (19-5 record)

6. Saskatchewan Winter Games in Yorkton, SK while teaching in Ceylon, SK – somehow, I ended up being the weightlifting coach for our district at the Winter Games. My team consisted of four male athletes. I traveled by car with two of them and met the other two, who traveled with their parents, to the site. There was a mix-up in the schedule and one of my athletes, who was supposed to lift on Saturday, had his weight class event switched to Friday evening. The organizers did not let all of the athletes know about the change, and consequently, he missed his event. In order to make sure that he could compete in the games at all, I got him switched to the weight-class above his regular category. However, he was not heavy enough to compete in the class, so he had to take on liquid to get himself up to weight. I sat around in the weigh-in office with my lifter and two officials for about two hours, while this poor kid finished off four 2-liter bottles of soda and another two bottles of water, while being weighed intermittently to see where he was at. By the end of the two hours, his bladder was about ready to burst and after he got the green light on his weight, he hit the washroom. He told me later that it was the longest piss he had ever taken. He did well the next day but not well enough to medal against the much larger and stronger boys in his ‘new’ weight category. With the lift he made, he would have easily won the Gold Medal in his own lighter class the evening before. I felt bad about his lost award, so I managed to persuade the Games organizers to get me a ‘leftover’ Gold Medal, which I then presented to our guy. I think he was happy with the win, and probably even happier with the story he got to tell each time he explained the experience.

Grocery Shopping in China

5. Grade 12 Foods & Nutrition Shopping Trip while teaching in Wuhan, China – this was one of over 30 such trips I took with my various classes to a German-owned wholesale distributor (Metro), done so to replenish our cooking and baking supplies used in the class. Because the students were mostly 18 years old or over and because they were so responsible and because they were fluent in Chinese, of course, and so familiar with the city and public transportation and because Chinese cities are basically the safest in the world, I never really worried too much about them while on these trips. If I gave them instructions about when and where to meet up, they always followed them conscientiously to the letter and showed up on-time, every-time. One of the instructions was always to have my wife’s phone number on their phone (she was most often along as an accompanying female) in case of emergency, and to make sure they shopped, and then travelled to the mall for supper, in pairs or preferably in groups. On one particular occasion, however, I had a student who decided, in a stroke of greatly diminished wisdom, to go and see a movie during the supper meal break. She went by herself and by the time she left the cinema, all of the other students had already gone back to the bus, where they waited for her. Because we were in constant phone contact with her, we knew where she was. The problem was that she didn’t know where she was. Another problem was the Bus Driver. Chartered Bus Driver’s in China do not like to be kept waiting. They arrive and leave from destinations on the exact second that their contract states. Time is money. Extra seconds waiting could possibly mean having to navigate a last-minute road closure or a traffic jam. The only way one can get them to wait any length of time at all, is to buy them cigarettes and food and drinks. Before our poor movie-goer was finally guided back to the parked bus by her friends on their phones, I had already spent about 300 yuan on smokes and snacks for the driver. She finally arrived after a long wait to a rousing standing ovation on the bus.

Some of the "Big Eaters" looking for bargains!!

Home Economists adding up the damage at the check-out . . .

4. Track Team Recycling Fundraiser in Abbottsford, BC while teaching in Pender Harbour, BC – in order to raise some money to help our team with the purchase of uniforms and for travel to track meets, we arranged a day of working at a produce processing plant in Abbottsford, outside of Vancouver. The students arrived by bus and were marshalled into a training room for instructions on what they needed to do for the day. They put on aprons and protective clothing and goggles and then went to work cutting up vegetables and placing produce into bags for distribution to various centers throughout the lower mainland. After a day of work, we set up our tents on the lawn at the center and then went to a nearby mall for pizza and a movie. When we returned, everyone crashed, without coaxing, in their tents. We got up the next morning and were provided with breakfast before we went back to work for another half day. On our trip back to the Sunshine Coast, I couldn’t help but reflect on how good it felt to help out with a project of this nature. I realize that we were paid for our efforts but it still felt like we had done something significant for the community, the country and the world.

The team with our entourage in Prince George, BC

3. Senior Girls Volleyball tournament in Prince George, BC while teaching in Pender Harbour, BC – it just so happened that one of the girls on our team was a daughter of a Teacher Assistant in our school who was also a very dear friend and, who came from Prince George. We had often playfully discussed, as no more than a joke really, the idea of taking the team to play a tournament in Prince George. One Friday night, however, while singing Karaoke at their house, the joke became serious and we solidified our discussions to the point where on the following Monday, I was sitting in the Principal’s office begging for money. The trip was so cool. We bussed to Vancouver and then flew to Prince George. This was the first time I ever got to fly to a school sporting event, which meant that in my teaching career, I had now taken students on field trips where we traveled by plane, train, bus, boat and car. When our plane came in for its landing, there was a very strong crosswind, so there was a lot of turbulence. The couple beside me, were from the prairies, and they were white-knuckled and silently praying as the plane touched down. Others onboard the plane, screamed and hooted as it rocked and pitched toward the runway.

First-time flyer . . . "What - me worry?"

We had one player who had never flown before, and when we all gathered safely in the arrival lounge, she could be heard chatting with her ashen-faced teammates about how much she loved the excitement of flying, wondering if it was “always that good”. We stayed in a hotel. We traveled to a big High School and played volleyball. We shopped at a mall. We visited the University campus, which some of the girls eventually attended with big scholarships in the years that followed. It’s hard to say if it was the best field trip I’ve ever been on, but it was close.

2. Grade 12 Biology class trip to UBC Campus while teaching in Pender Harbour, BC – definitely one of my favorite group of kids I ever taught in my 32 years, gave me the pleasure of accompanying them to a few venues in Vancouver. We bussed to the ferry to start the day. Once on the ferry we had a breakfast in preparation for the long trip through Vancouver to the downtown area. Once there, we ate again (these guys were always hungry). As we were ready to leave to go to Stanley Park and the aquarium, I took one last look around and made my signal to “wagons ho”. Luckily, one of the boys, who was more observant than I was (and a very old-soul, motherly type to boot), alerted me to the fact that there still were a few of the class members in the washrooms. Alrighty then!!! We had a great time at the aquarium, then moved on to the UBC campus where we got to do a dissection in a state-of-the-art microscope lab. Our instructor was from Panama originally, so was very fluent in Spanish. One of my students that day, just happened to be a lovely exchange student from Argentina. When it came time to do her dissection presentation, she was allowed to do it in Spanish while our instructor interpreted for me and the rest of the class. When we left UBC, we hopped on the Sky-Train to Swangaard Stadium to watch the Provincial Track & Field meet. It was one of my most delightful field trips ever, with possibly one of the happiest and politest group of students any teacher could ever have or want.

Bus Drivers - It never would have happened without you guys!!!!

Number 1. Grade 12 Oilfield Technology class trip to Lloydminster, AB while teaching in Macklin, SK – often referred to, by me and any of the students who were on this trip, as “The Instant Field Trip”. When I taught school in Macklin, SK, which was a middle-sized town located in the oil-patch area of Midwestern Saskatchewan, I taught a course in Heavy Oil Oilfield Technology. Each autumn, in the border city of Lloydminster AB/SK (an hour to the north), many Canadian, American and even Foreign Oil companies and service industries jointly hosted an Oil Show to demonstrate products and innovative technologies. It was exactly the type of event that fit in perfectly with what I was doing in the classroom. I always made arrangements to have my students attend the show as a group. One particular year, I was aware that the show was taking place, but I had somehow missed noting the closing dates for the activities. One of our school-bus drivers came into the front office one morning to do his check-in report. He was my favorite bus-driver because he also drove my basketball teams to tournaments (he was the driver for the Onion Lake Tournament). I asked what he was up to for the day and he mentioned he was on his way to Lloydminster for the Oil Show, since it was the last day of the show. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I couldn’t fathom how I had missed the dates that badly and not made the arrangements to get the students to the show before it shut down. I immediately went into emergency-mode. I begged the driver to take his bus to Lloydminster instead of his car and to fill the bus with 30 senior students on top of that. He was game. Next, I checked in with the principal, who was pretty much a rebel in his own rights, to see if I could make the trip with the kids. He was game also. Next, I had to get all of my kids together to tell them the plan. Since school had not yet started for the day, I made a PA announcement for them to all assemble at the front office. As they arrived, I informed them to either use the school phone or their cell phones to contact their parents and guardians and gain permission to go on the trip. In the span of 15 minutes, every single one of my students had made the call and were sitting, in stunned silence, on the bus in preparation for a day at the OIL SHOW. It was one of the student's birthday that day. He told me on the way to the show, that it was the VERY BEST birthday surprise he had ever had. He just couldn’t believe his luck. All the kids were eventually able to grasp what had just happened and went on to enjoy the show, and the day went well. It all made me wonder why I previously ever spent all those hours and hours preparing for, and filling in paperwork for weeks prior to a field trip when really, it could be done as quickly as that. That trip was one of my proudest and most exciting moments of my teaching career – one that I, or any of my students, will ever forget.

Grade 12 Spring Break Trip to Saskatchewan while teaching in Pender Harbour – whenever I think of field trips and class tours, related to my teaching days, I have to include the tour to Saskatchewan (definitely in a league of its own and much to special to ever be included in a Top Ten list), on which I took my Grade 12 class from the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Most schools take Spring Break trips in March to warmer climes such as Florida or the Dominican Republic.

A cold Saskatchewan day in March

I, instead organized a trip to cold and barren Saskatchewan in the middle of a March winter. I made the pitch to the Grade 12 students and their parents on the first day of school in September. I had made some tentative arrangements on the Saskatchewan end during my summer vacation, so I had a few of the details worked out when I tried to sell the idea to the folks in BC. I guess my plan sounded good, because everyone bought in from moment one. In the weeks and months between September and the following March, we raised money through a variety of different activities like a school dance with a live Rock ‘N’ Roll band. We put on a carnival in the school gym with dunk tanks and fishing ponds and ball throwing with radar guns. We also sold baking and collected bottles and got donations from local businesses.

One of our parent leaders

We were able to raise enough money to allow 17 students, four adults and one teacher chaperone (me) to sail on two ferries, fly on two planes, ride on one train, travel on two buses, ride in several cars, cruise on a bunch of snowmobiles, drive a farm tractor and a couple of trucks, slip and slide on snow and ice and wallow in cow manure. So many of these students had never been to the prairies of Canada, especially in winter. I mean, why would anyone want to do that? Well, they did it and they did it with flair. They were even introduced to a real live prairie blizzard on their second day there. On the first evening, shortly after we were picked up from the airport in Saskatoon, we were driven to my little home town where we all dressed up and went out dancing at the most famous Dance Hall in the province – Danceland!! After the dance, everyone went home to their respective farm billets and had a good night’s rest.

My family with the four girls who billeted at my brother's farm.

Next morning, many of the farm billets had snowmobiles so a few of the kids went out for rides on the open prairie. They remarked that the prairies looked just like the ocean they lived on, only whiter.

Another farm billet family

Later that day, we visited my old High School, and the Saskatchewan students there, introduced the British Columbia students to the game of curling. To round off the afternoon, everyone went back to the gym and played a game of indoor soccer. That evening we had a big party at the Town Recreation Center. We ate and played pool and table tennis and performed and made speeches and took photos.

The students got to deliver some new calves.

The next day, we toured my neighbor’s dairy farm and rode around on the big 4-wheel drive tractor, helped deliver a couple of newborn calves, and climbed the 300-foot-tall grain silo.

"A not-much-different view" from up top!!

I asked one of the BC kids how he liked the view from high up on the silo. He laughed and told me, “Surprisingly, the view up there is not a whole lot different than it is down here!” I have used that quote so often since then, whenever someone asks me to describe the Saskatchewan landscape.

A childhood friend and farm neighbour who also billeted some of the kids

To finish off the farm visit, a few of the boys shoveled flax to help clean out a grain bin. That evening, we all went to the most famous mineral spa in Canada and swam around in a heated salt-water pool, to help ease the aches and pains of a busy day on the farm.

The next day we hopped on a bus I had chartered with one of my old friends and drove to the Notre Dame College at Wilcox, Saskatchewan where a former student from Pender Harbor was attending and boarding. He was so happy to see all of us from his home town. The Headmaster took us on a tour and showed us books that Father Murray had ‘borrowed’, then eventually ‘kept’ when he first started his school, decades earlier. One of the history books was so old that it included nothing about Christopher Colombus’s voyages to the Americas in the 15th century. We visited classrooms and the Hockey Arena where players like Wendel Clark, Vincent Lecavalier, Curtis Joseph and Morgan Reilly had played. We heard about the “Spam Miracle” (you can look it up), and learned the meaning of the school motto – “Struggle and Emerge” – a motto that I keep in my mind always.

Wintery days

After we left the College, we made a quick stop at nearby “Dog River” to see the set used for the television series, “Corner Gas”. We bought some souvenirs, then moved on to Regina where we ate at a Mall and bought more souvenirs of my favorite CFL Football team – The Saskatchewan Roughriders. From there, we descended upon the Saskatchewan Science Centre, where I used to work. We played with science toys and saw an IMAX movie and then slept overnight on floors here and there in borrowed sleeping bags. The next morning, we got up, had a breakfast provided by the Science Museum, hopped back on the bus and slept all the way to our hotel in Saskatoon. Most of the students crashed early to prepare for our 6:00 am wake-up call the next day.

Heading to work at the Potash Mine

We ate our breakfast in the hotel and then shuttled to a nearby Potash Mine where we endured a lecture about Potash and safety on the mine site. We then dressed up in coveralls, safety helmets, goggles and boots and toured the mill for an hour, before eventually descending a kilometer underground to survey the mineshaft area.

Hard-Rock Miners

While underground, we saw the hard-rock miner machine in action, and drove around in little white Toyota trucks and followed street signs that took us into secluded areas of the mine that were no longer being used. When our driver turned off the lights on the truck, the darkness that ensued was the darkest any of us had ever experienced. In the late afternoon we were shuttled back into the city and taken to a friend’s house. I taught school with this couple at my last assignment in Saskatchewan, before moving to Pender Harbour. He had been the Principal (the same Principal who approved the “Instant Field Trip”) of the School and she had been the Grade 5 Teacher. One of our boys suffered from the stomach flu (maybe food poisoning) the night before and couldn’t go on the Potash Mine Tour so my friends drove to the hotel and picked him and his girlfriend up and took them to their place early while the rest of us were at the mine.

One last side-trip to see the Particle Accelerator at the U of S

A few of us decided to take one last side trip to the University of Saskatchewan, where we went for a tour of the Synchrotron Light Source particle accelerator. We were pretty much pooped when we got back, so we all lounged around my friend’s place and watched movies and relaxed for a few hours, until midnight, when a city bus came by and picked us up and took us to the VIA Rail Train station.

Getting work with VIA Rail

Silent Reading onboard the 'Midnight Train'

We boarded a train and took an over-night train to Edmonton. When we arrived 8 hours later, we were shuttled immediately to the West Edmonton Mall, where we spent the day swimming, golfing, skating, shooting, shopping and riding the indoor roller coaster.

West Edmonton Mall

Two of the girls celebrated birthdays on the trip and became legally old enough to go into the bar. So, they and a few of their ‘legal’ friends spent some time at “Hooters”.

We closed down the Mall and went to our hotel where everyone crashed until an early wake-up and breakfast.

Waiting for the flight home

After that, it was airport time and our flight back to Vancouver where our friendly and favorite Bus Driver (and father of one of my student tourists) waited to take us back to the Ferry Boat and finally back home to Pender Harbour. All in all, it was an action-packed trip over 8 days with 21 of the most amazing students and adults I will ever meet in my life.

Oh, and by the way – I will always be proud of bearing my teacher nickname – “ROADTRIP”.

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About the Creator

John Oliver Smith

Baby, son, brother, child, student, collector, farmer, photographer, player, uncle, coach, husband, student, writer, teacher, father, science guy, fan, coach, grandfather, comedian, traveler, chef, story-teller, driver, regular guy!!

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